At A Glance

This Alert Affects:

Anyone who entered into a contract with InventHelp for “invention promotion services” within the last four years.

What’s Going On?

InventHelp is facing class action lawsuits that allege the company scams aspiring inventors out of thousands of dollars for “invention promotion services” it cannot and does not intend to provide. Attorneys working with ClassAction.org now want to hear from people who feel they were scammed by InventHelp to help strengthen the litigation.

How Can I Get Involved?

Fill out the form on this page and tell us what happened to you. One of the attorneys handling this investigation may then reach out to you directly to explain more about the class action lawsuits and why you may be able to get money back from InventHelp.

InventHelp has been hit with class actions lawsuits alleging the company scams aspiring inventors out of thousands of dollars in exchange for “invention promotion services” it cannot and never intends to provide.

If you feel you were scammed by InventHelp, fill out the form on this page and share your story, or read on for more.

InventHelp Class Action Lawsuits: What Happened?

InventHelp has been sued over allegations that its entire business model and enterprise is fraudulent and that the company exists solely to scam would-be inventors out of money.

False Promises?

The suits allege that InventHelp lures in clients with “slick advertising” that promises the company can help aspiring inventors develop and monetize their ideas. Specifically, InventHelp advertises that it has relationships with “more than 9,000 companies” that can review new product ideas. The lawsuits claim, however, that these relationships either do not exist or that the companies themselves are entirely made up.

InventHelp also represents that it has helped more than 10,000 clients receive patents for their ideas and even goes so far as to decorate its offices with “successful” inventions, often labeled “As Seen on TV,” to further the image that it is a legitimate enterprise. Despite these representations, however, InventHelp has an abysmal success rate, lacks the infrastructure needed to promote any of its clients’ inventions, and fails to fulfill almost every promise it makes to consumers, the suits allege.

“High-Pressure” Sales Tactics and Expensive Contracts

The lawsuits also allege that InventHelp uses high-pressure sales tactics to push clients into signing fraudulent contracts and hand over, in some cases, tens of thousands of dollars for the company’s promised suite of invention promotion services.

Customers are allegedly told that their ideas are “one of a kind” and have the potential to generate “millions or billions” in profit with the help of InventHelp’s services. The company then encourages inventors to sign up immediately to receive “substantial discounts” offered by fake specials that are supposedly “set to expire.”

To further induce sign ups, InventHelp sells its agreements as “no risk” and tells inventors that their contracts will simply expire if they can no longer afford payment. When payment is actually stopped, however, InventHelp allegedly threatens to destroy customers’ credit and put liens on their homes.

For those who cannot afford the cost of the “promotion” services, InventHelp offers generous loans through an “independent and private” money lender known as Universal Payment Corporation. This company, however, is not “independent” at all, as it operates under the same ownership and control as InventHelp and even shares the same address, the lawsuits claim.

“Just $5,000 to $10,000 More”

After receiving anywhere between $700 and $30,000 as payment for its “services,” InventHelp begins “marketing” its clients’ inventions. The company then sends out a “flurry of paperwork for years on end” to give customers the impression that it’s shopping around their ideas even though it has no intention or means of ever trying to license or promote the inventions, the suits claim.

After eventually going quiet for months or even years, InventHelp allegedly reappears as a distribution, marketing or manufacturing company that has “discovered” the person’s invention and just needs an additional $5,000 to $10,000 to finalize purchase orders, licensing agreements and/or retail distributions. Once InventHelp receives this money, the company “disappears without a trace,” the suits claim.

InventHelp Complaints and Reviews

Hundreds of negative reviews on InventHelp are believed to have been published online. InventHelp, however, has allegedly used “nefarious means to censor, block and/or mask” these reviews on popular complaint sites like PissedConsumer.com and RipOffReport.com, preventing potential customer from seeing what really happens when signing up for the company’s “invention promotion services.”

The following are among the few reviews still available online at the time of this post [sic throughout]:

Watch out for this hoax… I signed up with invent help in late 2017 & then rollercoaster of false hopes & crappy low budget ‘referral’ services began. They know every trick in the book to hook you & then take your money. My biggest mistake I made was not researching the large amount of lawsuits against invent help that have been filed over the years, not to mention the scam alert pages & news reports found online pointing to invent helps tricks in their billion dollar industry.”— Brian, DirtyScam.com

On 11/20/2015 I entered into a contract with Inventhelp and paid a total of $15,995.71 for submission of my invention since that time I have received a book with basic marketing info and a pamphlet and DVD, they claim that my submission will be entered into a DataBank for companies to review and as per the contract I was suppose to receive quarterly updates, as of today 1/16/2019 I have received 3 generic pieces of paper saying that no companies were interested in my submission, there was no reasoning or follow up and I only received these papers after I called to make a complaint about the status. InventHelp is a total scam. They claim they have a databank but can give no details. I am deeply disappointed and will need to take legal action.”— Anonymous, BBB.org

My experience with this SCAM company is terrible! They tell you all the things you want to hear, to get your money. And then they sit back and do nothing. It's a racket plan and simple! Other than drawing up a elementary school level sketch of my product, they virtually didn't do anything that was promised! I'm going to seek legal action! I want to give negative 5 stars.”— Christopher, ConsumerAffairs.com

How Can Class Action Lawsuits Help?

If successful, the lawsuits could help InventHelp’s clients get back some of the money they spent in hopes of marketing their inventions.

The suits also seek a court order requiring InventHelp to correct its business practices and to comply with consumer protection laws, as well as The American Inventors Protection Act.

To learn more about the lawsuits and how you can get involved, simply fill out the form on this page.